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- Herausgeber: Independent Thinking Press
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
Hywel Roberts and Debra Kidd's Uncharted Territories: Adventures in learning is a book of prompts, provocations and possibilities designed to nourish creativity and generate ideas that will get teachers and pupils excited about learning. In this time of high-stakes testing, growing mental health issues among young people and increasing pressure on teachers to focus on rote repetition and practice papers, we have to step back and ask: "What is the purpose of education?" If you think it is to get children through tests, then this book is probably not for you. If, however, you think it is to develop wisdom in children - the capacity to think, to apply knowledge, to empathise, to weigh up evidence, to consider consequences and to make informed choices - then this book is most definitely for you. Rooted in practice and grounded in research, Uncharted Territories invites a reassessment of what curriculum coverage can look like and provides an abundance of hooks into exploratory learning that place learners - of whatever age - knee-deep in dilemma, so that they are thinking deeply, analytically and imaginatively. These are not knowledge organisers or schemes of work; rather they are inspirational forays into imagined contexts for learning which, as fantastical as they may appear, always have the real world as their destination. Signposted by story starters and inductive questions - not to mention the beautiful illustrations which are sure to fire children's imaginations - Hywel and Debra's innovative routes to learning will help teachers stray from the beaten track of the curriculum and instil in learners a sense of purpose as they discover, manipulate and apply knowledge and skills across a range of collaborative, cross-curricular problem-solving contexts. Each chapter focuses on a different place - such as a remote castle or a mysterious cave, where the learning will be applied and challenged - and is packed with starting points and "what ifs ...?" to establish rich landscapes for exploration and a wide range of opportunities for discussion and writing. To help map out the territory ahead, Hywel and Debra guide the teacher around the key learning landmarks linked to each context's overarching concepts and lines of inquiry, and point out the many different curriculum areas to which the explorations naturally lend themselves to. The authors go further by offering transferable ideas which can be adjusted to work with whatever age group, as well as a variety of context-based tasks to enable the teacher to explore how elements of, for example, literacy and/or numeracy could be incorporated in order to save curriculum time. While Uncharted Territories is a rallying call to arms for the imagination, in each of its chapters Hywel and Debra also delve into the why in order to present the teacher with a comprehensive debrief of the learning processes and the theoretical and academic underpinning. Furthermore, the authors provide a helpful listing of drama techniques and relevant books and poems that can be incorporated into the learning journeys, as well as useful advice on how to assess and evidence their outcomes. Designed for use with learners of all ages, from early years to secondary.
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Seitenzahl: 224
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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Foreword
I am delighted and honoured to have been asked to write the foreword to this book, the authors of which are colleagues with whom I have had the privilege to work on more than one occasion. Every time I have done so, I have learned a great deal and this book captures a huge amount of that learning.
It is a book that offers ideas and practical suggestions that can be translated into the classroom to the benefit of teachers and learners. It will be a treasure trove that you can return to again and again to find inspiration, strategies and tools.
It is also a book that contains arguments and ideas. It is much more than a handbook – much more, even, than a very good toolkit. I read it from cover to cover and was struck by the way in which all the elements of the book blend together to achieve the ambition that it sets for itself. It is “an unabashed call to arms for the imagination”.
It encourages you to work with ideas from young people, identify their strengths, give them the chance to co-construct the learning and help them to tap into their potential. It also answers the question that I keep asking: “How do you know what the potential of learners is, unless you allow them to surprise you?” This book is full of contexts and questions which offer that opportunity.
“But what about knowledge, discipline and attainment?” you might ask. The answer is that these elements are all here too. Debra and Hywel identify concepts and content which they map onto the curriculum. In my terms, they show us how to “imagine up” and then to “engineer back down again”.
This might be a rallying call, but it is a very responsible one which recognises that our role as educators is not only to inform, but also to engage and inspire. Fundamentally, it is a book that sees and makes the links between all three ambitions.
Give yourself a treat – read it and come away recharged, re-equipped and reaffirmed in your commitment to offer learners a richer and more effective experience in your classes. You can’t ask for much more than that!
David Cameron, Kirkcaldy, Fife
Acknowledgements
Giants’ Shoulders
We first met on a Saturday in 2004, at a training day with Dorothy Heathcote. Hywel was Jack, Debra was Jill. We’ve been rolling down hills ever since. Matthew Milburn, then head of Kingstone School in Barnsley, was looking to set up a new Key Stage 3 curriculum which would offer a bridge between the primary and secondary phases and would give children a dilemma-led, humane learning experience. He asked Debra to set it up and to train the staff in the pedagogical approach that would bring the curriculum to life. Hywel was an AST at the school and, over the next two years, the staff who devised and delivered that cultural studies curriculum led a pedagogical revolution across the school that had a significant impact not just on results but on the attitudes and confidence of staff and learners alike. We’ve not looked back. We owe Matthew and other members of that team – particularly Ondrie Mann and Jane Hewitt – our careers. And, of course, we must also acknowledge the formidable, knowledgeable, compassionate and uncompromisingly rigorous Dorothy Heathcote – the best teacher either of us has ever known.
We both started out as English teachers in the 1990s and, like many English teachers, we ended up also teaching and loving drama. But drama teaching is very specific – it isn’t an offshoot of English. It demands a skill set and knowledge base that is broad, both practical and theoretical and also deeply emotional. We needed training. We both remain thankful to the National Association for the Teaching of Drama (NATD) for offering that training and we would like to raise a glass to professional subject bodies everywhere, who hold up their members with support, advice, subject knowledge and more. And to those veteran practitioners, in particular Luke Abbott, who taught us how to look, how to think, how to listen and how to be our authentic selves: thank you.
There be images in this book and neither one of us could have produced these. To Gabriel Kidd, who created them while juggling his A levels, thank you. And to Ian Gilbert who saw potential in us both some years ago and encouraged us to write, thanks to you too.
No one succeeds alone. This work is credited to the thousands of children, teachers, teaching assistants and leaders who have let us be the teachers we are and who have encouraged us at every step. Thank you.
And finally to our families. For holding back the eye-rolling and the sighs; for picking up the endless domestic duties; for putting up with our bad jokes; for patiently asking the same question ten times before it got through to our daydreaming heads. To Maria, Cath, Tommy, Allan, Joe, Gabriel, Sam – the most patient giants in town – thank you.
Contents
Introduction
A Statement of Intent
Dear parents, teachers, educators and children,
Teachers can’t possibly work harder. Schools can’t possibly do more. As hard as they may try to, and in spite of all this effort, results don’t improve and our children and teachers’ mental health suffers. Outside of education, our planet is facing challenges that only the best kinds of thinking will be able to fix. Teaching children the best that has been thought and said only takes us so far. It takes us into our rich and fascinating past. But the future will demand the best that is yet to be said, yet to be thought and yet to be done. That thinking and that action will be done by our children and in order to equip them with the capacity, belief and desire to engage with this, we need to look to the future – empowering children with the belief that they can be agents for change, armed with the tools to imagine themselves into a more humane, creative world.
So this book is an unabashed call to arms for the imagination. For of all the unique attributes of humankind, it is the imagination that elevates us to a place where possibilities can become probabilities: to a place of hope. And as teachers, parents and carers of children, what are we if not architects of hope?
Dr Debra Kidd Hywel Roberts
Some Routes to the Roots of Thinking and Learning
Warriors of wonder, let’s begin.
This is a book of prompts, provocations and possibilities designed to nourish your creativity and generate ideas that get you excited about learning. It invites a reassessment of what curriculum coverage can look like in the classroom, or even in the home. Rest assured that all the ideas in this book are rooted in practice and grounded in research and have been held up to the scrutiny of professionals across the planet. We want to share with you these routes to joy, warmth, enrichment and progress in the classroom, and we have set the book out accordingly. These are not knowledge organisers or schemes of work; they are inspirational tickles – ideas to get you and your children frothing at the mouth with a sense of purpose while motivating learners to acquire, interpret and apply knowledge and use it to solve problems. Whether you are in an early years setting or a secondary geography classroom, there are adaptable possibilities woven throughout each chapter that place learners, of whatever age, knee-deep in dilemma, so that they are thinking deeply, analytically and imaginatively.
Each chapter begins with an image that can be used as a hook into learning in its own right. There are story starters and questions attached to the image to stimulate the imagination and provoke discussion and writing. In addition, each chapter is packed with starting points and “what ifs …?” to establish rich contexts and scenarios for exploration, supported by inductive questioning. We explore these contexts using a variety of approaches, including several drama techniques. For the uninitiated, these appear in bold and are outlined in a list in the back of the book.
Each chapter focuses on a different place. This location is the space our learning will inhabit, where it will be applied and challenged. This imagined context, as fantastical as it may appear, will always have the real world as its destination, and the curriculum – as much of it as you wish to explore – sits there, waiting to be discovered. These places are imagined in your classroom, but we would urge you to link them to tangible, lived experiences by taking children out into real forests and caves, mountains and castles, zoos and theme parks. There is a world of curriculum in each of these places. Although we develop a single idea in more detail in each chapter, this is meant to stimulate your own thoughts and imagination and to liberate you from the same old, same old. Be brave!
In this time of high-stakes testing, growing mental health issues among young people, increasing pressure on teachers to focus not on engagement and relevance in learning but instead on rote repetition, practice papers and panic, we have to step back and ask the question, “What is the purpose of education?” If you think it is to get children through tests, then this book is probably not for you. If you think it is to develop wisdom in children – the capacity to think, to apply knowledge, to empathise, to weigh up evidence, to consider consequences and to make informed choices – then this book is most definitely for you.
It is our firm belief, rooted in over 40 years of collective experience, that the most successful schools see examinations as by-products of a great education – not as the end product. They see that education itself is a much more complex journey into the heart of what it is to be human. To reflect that journey, we have organised this book as a series of maps and guides. They are concept and inquiry driven and dovetail beautifully with the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and Middle Years Programme (MYP) of the International Baccalaureate (IB). We’ve used our native UK terminology of primary, secondary and key stages throughout, but the ideas here are in no way tied to one country or system of education.1 It is our hope that whatever your context or setting you’ll find adaptable ideas that will work in your classroom – this exploration has no borders. No curriculum is so restrictive that this kind of work can’t take hold. You just need a good guide book. And here it is.
In each chapter you will find:
The Key
This is an image and a related story starter. It introduces our location and poses some provocative initial questions. It can be used as a stand-alone thinking exercise or as part of the routes to learning – it’s up to you. At the very least, it should fire the children’s imaginations and stimulate ideas for exploration and writing. Each illustration is available to download from www.crownhouse.co.uk/featured/uncharted-territories so you can use these as prompts for discussion, role play or writing – or anything else that takes your imagination – with your classes.
Primary Landmarks
This is a list of potential starting points and ideas which can be used in a primary classroom. We might call them “hooks” or “lures”, both of which are not intended to entice children into learning, but to induct them into deep thinking. It’s not about coating a strawberry in chocolate – using something as a distraction from the learning – it’s about appreciating the strawberry itself – focusing on the underlying substance. Each landmark is linked to an overarching concept and line of inquiry, but these are simply suggestions and you are free to find your own.
Secondary Landmarks
This is a list of starting points, similar to the primary landmarks but for the secondary classroom, with a slightly greater emphasis on subject-related focus points and ideas. We have tried, as far as possible, to avoid tying these to particular subjects in the hope that some of these sections might encourage interdisciplinary learning opportunities, but we know that canny subject specialists will tune into the elements relevant to their teaching and, in any case, all of these ideas can be adapted for or linked to many different disciplines.
A Stopover
This is a more in-depth account of a learning journey, offering transferable ideas that can be adjusted to work with whatever age group you teach. What we’re saying is, just because an idea might appear more appropriate for a primary class, and you teach secondary (or vice versa), you should not necessarily discount it. The ideas and concepts – and some of the tasks and techniques – can be filtered and transferred in a number of situations and settings.
Stepping Stones
These are context-based tasks that you could carry out with your children. They are also included to prod your professional imagination and to explore how elements of, for example, literacy and/or numeracy could be incorporated into the scenario in order to save curriculum time.
The Bedrock
This is the why of what we are offering in each example: a debrief of the processes and the theoretical and academic underpinning. Just in case anyone asks. It’s critical that, as teachers, we understand why we do what we do and that we’re able to justify it when questioned. The bedrock sections give you more detailed information about learning and the underpinning research.
The real driver that prompted us to write this book was the hundreds of inspirational teachers we have worked with who have found that, in recent years, their own creativity has been stifled somewhat by the fog of bureaucracy and the narrowing of the curriculum offer. A rising fear of not covering the content of the curriculum and of hit-or-miss inspections has led to a shortening of that list of strategies deemed “the right way”. Rather than seeing teachers as trainers of children, we would rather think of ourselves as Sherpas of the curriculum and that’s why we’ve shaped the book in the way we have.
So, take our hands and walk with us. There may be dragons.
1 For quick reference, Key Stage 3 is roughly equivalent with the US middle school or junior high and the first half of the IB MYP.
Chapter 1
The Forest
All the stories were gathered here, in one place.
Why is the figure in the forest?
Will the trees protect the forest visitor?
Where next for this forest visitor?
Is this a secret place?
Why might trees not like books?
Can a tree weep?
What else have the trees witnessed?
Who sits in the light, gathering the books?
Is the book we see in the distance coming towards us, or being sucked away?
Your own questions …
Download the image from www.crownhouse.co.uk/featured/uncharted-territories
The Forest
There are few places as magical as a forest. Whether we think of fairy tales – like Hansel and Gretel – of poetry, or of walking through woods on snowy nights, forests are places of intrigue, mystery and quite possibly danger. In the real world and on a practical level, we need forests, and exploring why can be a key area of learning. Topics to explore could include understanding the role forests play in producing oxygen for human beings, in keeping ecosystems in balance and in providing habitats for animal species. So step onto the path and enter the forest …
Primary Landmarks
What if … the children are brought into the forest to meet the Fairy King, Oberon, who tells the children that in his kingdom, there is a thief who is stealing children and fairy folk? He takes them, leaving behind only their shadows. The forest is full of these sad, lost shadows. Could the children create the shadows using screens and lights? Can they find the thief and reunite the shadows with their owners? They may need to make a mental or physical map of the forest – the troll caves, the pondering ponds and all kinds of other places spinning from their imaginations – in order to finish the story. They could also consider other stories where shadows are separated from their owners – for example, Peter Pan.
Concept: Light and shadow.
Lines of inquiry: Why are forests such common settings in traditional stories? What do story settings tell us about the relationship between humankind and nature? What kinds of mythical creatures do we find in forests? What are shadows and how are they formed?
Curriculum areas: Geographical mapping, science investigations – shadows and light, literacy, narrative inquiry, story creation.
What if … the children, in role as surveyors, were asked to inspect and write a report on a derelict Gothic property, hidden deep in the forest? The children are only told that the report should be positive and that the client is a rich man who lives abroad. If he buys the property, they will receive a fee. To entice them in, you can use an image of an abandoned house in a forest. The property has been empty for many, many years. They enter the forest on a dark, dreary day. Having mapped out the house, describing the rooms, they write a full report, describing the house in as positive a light as they can. But then, they receive a letter from their client, who is revealed as none other than Count Dracula … He is looking forward to receiving their report and is keen to purchase a new home. But do they really want Count Dracula to move into the forest? What about the other people living there? Would he be a danger to them? What should they do next? How can they put him off? Or would they sell the house and take the fee?
Concept: Public interest.
Lines of inquiry: Is the customer always right? Are there some circumstances in which we have a duty to say no? How do you say no to someone who is more powerful than you?
Curriculum areas: Geographical mapping, producing scaled drawings (area, scale and ratio), report writing, measuring, Gothic literature, letter writing, problem solving.
What if … Little Red Riding Hood, months after her trauma with the wolf, is too frightened to venture outside? Her friends are worried about her. They decide they must go into the forest to seek out the wolf ’s family in an attempt to negotiate a restorative conversation between their friend and the wolves. But they find, to their surprise, that the wolves are also too scared to leave their lair after the incident. How can peace be restored in the forest? Is it possible for the wolves and the humans to coexist in this habitat? Could we create a safe habitat for the wolves so they are kept away from the humans?
Concept: Restorative justice.
Lines of inquiry: How do we help people to recover from bad events? What responsibility do we bear for our friends’ and family’s actions? Can we change our nature?
Curriculum areas: Restorative talk, negotiating, mapping, exploring natural habitats, protecting different species and humans, conservation.
What if … you discover that the class teddy bear has gone missing? You find a note which says that he has gone to find his family in the deep, dark forest. You are worried about him – the forest is magical but there are many dangers in it. Should you go and help him? What will you need to take? How can you talk to the trees so that they will help you and see you as their friends?
Concept: Helping others.
Lines of inquiry: Is it ever right to put yourself in danger in order to help a friend? What should we take into a forest to keep us safe? What might we find in the forest? How will we find our way home again?
Curriculum areas: Communication and language, personal, social and emotional development, numeracy, counting and mapping, literacy, making labels to guide the way home, designing homes for magical creatures in the forest, making habitats for real ones.
What if … all the books in the world were disappearing into a magical forest? Who might want them and why? How might you find out what is happening? Dare you venture into the Forest of Fearsome Faces in order to discover more?
Concept: Cultural heritage.
Lines of inquiry: Why do books matter? Which are the best kinds of books? Where do books come from and what do they have to do with trees? Could you use the image at the beginning of the chapter to create your own book? What if the image were the first in a book? What if it were in the middle? What if it were at the end? How would this influence the narrative structure?
Curriculum areas: Literacy, reading favourite books, writing (Could the children collectively write a book and track it to see where the book thief is going with all the books?), oracy (How will they persuade the book thief to give the books back?).
Secondary Landmarks
What if … you were scientists or botanists, whose job it was to collect rare plants used in medicines? What kind of forest might you be sent to? What might be the threats to this forest? Can the ingredients for the medicines be synthetically manufactured rather than taken from plants? Is there anything you can do to make sure that precious plants are conserved? Are some plants more deserving of conservation than others?
Concept: Conservation.
Lines of inquiry: Why do we need plants and whose responsibility is it to conserve them? Would it ever be right for someone to “own” a species of plant?
Curriculum areas: Ethics, biology, conservation, geography, business.
What if … this were the last remaining forest in the world and you were charged with the responsibility of taking care of it? In addition to managing the footpaths and caring for the different plants and animals, you need to manage the number of tourists and create multilingual resources for them. You will have to work out how many visitors you can cope with, balancing the need to generate income to help conserve the forest with the need to protect the forest from the harm caused by too many people. What if a new leader is voted into office who decides the forest should go?
Concept: Conservation and tourism.
Lines of inquiry: How can we balance protecting our natural wonders with allowing people to visit and appreciate them? How do conservation organisations receive funding in order to do their work?
Curriculum areas: Conservation of forest areas, mapping, budgeting, planning, designing, drawing to scale, political negotiation and protest, writing to inform and persuade.
What if … you were Khejarli villagers in a forest in 1730? These villagers were part of a Hindu sect, committed to protecting the trees, plants and animals around them, which they viewed as being part of a sacred whole. When the Maharaja’s army came to cut down the trees, they stood in the way to protect them, despite the threat of violence. How might this decision have been made? What kind of belief system would you need to have to be willing to sacrifice your own life for a tree? What kinds of prayers, rituals and conversations might these people have had? What went through their minds when the soldiers came and cut down their people along with the trees? Tragically, 363 people died in this way. When we look at what we know today about climate change and the importance of trees to our health, do their actions have extra significance? Were they foolish to sacrifice their lives for this cause?
Concept: Beliefs and values.
Lines of inquiry: Is anything worth dying for? How do we speak to power? How might diplomacy work in order to avoid tragedy?
Curriculum areas: Religion, history of branches of Hinduism, the roots of the conservation movement, power and control in hierarchical systems, ethics, beliefs and philosophy, language and power.
A Stopover
This session was originally taught to Year 4 children but could easily be adapted for older classes.
The children enter the room to find a large circle made of masking tape, which represents an oak tree. You may want to cut some oak leaf shapes out of paper and scatter them around. If you can source them, you could add some acorns. Projected onto the wall is an image of a forest. Begin by talking about the forest:
“What if we imagine we have lived in this forest for all of our lives? And that those lives were lived a very long time ago – over 400 years ago. What might our lives have been like? What kinds of jobs might we have done?”
Let the children create occupational mimes of the jobs they could do and discuss them before continuing:
“We have lived here for so long, we have had time to think of names for all of the trees. They mean something to us all. Can we all please stand up and think of a name for our favourite tree … maybe ‘the tree of wishes’ or ‘the story tree’. What would you call yours?”
Get the children to name their tree – building investment in the forest and the trees that inhabit it. Build their names into stories – for example, “Ah – the tree of playfulness – this is where all the children come to … Oh … the tree of curiosity! It is said that this tree can whisper secrets to you when the wind is blowing from the north …” You can, if you like, get the children to create their own stories about their trees and what makes them special.
